Welcome to Walbundrie, home of the Demons. A sentence that would make no sense in any other year but this is 2021, and all bets are off.

"Raffle?" asks Sheather as I wind the window down.

"It's a winning ticket," he grins, and how can I say no to that?

Lockhart's season was thrown into turmoil the day Daniel Andrews declared he was shrinking the border bubble, shutting them out of Victoria and therefore preventing anyone who needed to cross the river from travelling to the town.

Facing a run of home games without a viable home, the Demons reached out for help and Rand-Walbundrie-Walla answered the call, offering the use of their facilities.

"These are strange times but we do what we've got to do to get on the park," Sheather, the first-grade team manager, said.

"Country football is our main gathering for the week, an outing for our families, four games of footy and seven games of netball so although it's a pain to have to travel, at least we still get to play.

"I'm born and bred in Lockhart. We're called the verandah town, we're a small community and this is where everyone gets to have a yarn during this Covid crisis.

"It's the camaraderie, being part of something that's good.

"You see children grow up and over the years, they go from little kids to fully-fledged adulthood and you've had something to do with that. It's nice."

To the untrained eye, it's just another Saturday at the football and netball with the sound of an umpire's whistle and players shouting to their team-mates all so familiar.

But the reality is a whole club has been transplanted in a matter of hours to make the day possible.

"We met on Thursday night to organise our plan of attack," vice-president Tracy Hounsell said. "Last night, we met at the football sheds, loaded up the trucks and the first crew got here at 8 o'clock this morning.

"We'll forever be grateful to Walbundrie. They've hired us their ground and all their equipment in the kitchen, which has been a godsend because we haven't had to bring pie warmers or anything like that.

"Tonight, we have to clean all the amenities, pack up what we don't sell and head back home.

"This season we've had five home games in a row, so it's been a big call and financially we're going to suffer. Our volunteer base is less when you have to travel away but everyone's pulled their weight."

Hounsell was a netballer for many years and her children played after her.

"It's called giving back to a club that's been wonderful to us," she said.

"I walked over to the football ground last night and the oval had four-year-olds up to 17-year-olds running around on the field. There were netballers everywhere and I just thought 'this is what it's all about.'

"That's why you do it."

Central to all the planning has been indefatigable club president Bob Mathews, effusing energy and enthusiasm well beyond beyond his years.

"I suppose that's just me," he smiled when I ask where his passion for the Demons comes from.

"This year has been challenging. Last year we abandoned ship before we got very far whereas this year, we've battled on.

"Everyone's a lot more resilient this year.

"Whenever there's a problem, be it the border closure or getting kicked out of the bubble, the clubs have been very resilient.

"I can't talk enough about country football and how good it is for people's physical and mental health.

"We've got 200 players in football and netball and everyone who volunteers can feel very proud of the job they do.

"Rand-Walbundrie-Walla and the Walbundrie Rec Committee have been unbelievably helpful towards us. They really have made our job a lot easier.

"They saw we were in trouble, we put our hand up and they said they would help.

"We've got a very practical, hard-working committee; mothers, housewives, businesswomen and accountants so we sat down and worked through all the problems.

"The gate today will be good, the canteen will probably end up running out of food and it's just like a home game.

"It's about being proactive. We tend to see the problems before they get to us.

"One of our chip cookers has stopped working and that's a disaster. I was trying to work out how to get it going because I'm not the most practical bloke but one of the plumbers from the Henty footy club got it going again."

The queue at the canteen is growing and Mathews' prediction soon comes to pass. The kitchen has run out of chips so he jumps in the car and arranges to meet a delivery halfway to Lockhart.

Junior football is concluding for the day as the reserves run onto the ground and senior players begin their preparations.

"It's incredible how much the kids have improved from the start of the year to now," Demons under-14 coach Andy Jones said.

"We beat the fourth-best side in the comp today and beat them quite comfortably but earlier in the year, we wouldn't have gone close.

"This is my first season doing this. It's been challenging but good and it's so important for the kids' physical and mental health.

"A huge thanks to the Rand-Walbundrie football club for letting us use their ground because if they weren't obliging like that, today wouldn't be happening."

Stood next to us is Stuart 'Hap' Patey, who's run the club's Auskick program for the last six years.

"It can be a bit chaotic at 9am, getting them all here," he admitted.

"But it's good fun and our numbers are pretty good.

"I think it's vital in these rural communities. The demographics don't go in our favour regarding numbers because if you look around the Lockhart area, there's three or four football clubs that, in the past 30 years, have shut up shop.

"It's just as important for us adults. We need somewhere to vent and football's a beautiful game. It doesn't matter what your political or religious opinion, you can wipe all that aside and cheer for your team.

"I look forward to this a lot. A lot of people tend to think you're doing a good job with the kids but it's not for the kids, it's actually for me.

"That probably sounds a bit selfish but that's what it is.

"We've all been beneficiaries of this upbringing. You always had those role models you wanted to follow and who looked after you.

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"It's a big circle, really."

Even those not born in Lockhart have bought into the ethos.

"My husband and I were drovers and we came through Lockhart quite a few times," club secretary Megan McKenzie said.

"I always said how friendly the people were. They always used to say 'hello' and I thought I'd love to live there one day.

"It's a safe town for kids growing up. The kids have lifelong friends now and the town itself has everything you need; two doctors, ambulance, fire station, police. We're very lucky.

"Because we've got Osborne just up the road, the town really supports two football-netball clubs. A lot of businesses find it hard to support two clubs but we've survived this long and so have they, so we'll keep plodding on while there's a comp.

"Hopefully, with the border bubble, it'll sort itself out and we'll be able to continue next year in the Hume league.

"The Hume league is invaluable in the fact that we all play on Saturday. The Farrer league and Riverina league split their seniors and juniors so one plays on Saturday and the other plays on Sunday.

"I think that's what helps clubs like ours, because you're there for the whole day, together as family. We start all together, we finish all together and we go back to the club and have dinner together.

"The juniors we've got coming up are going to be a force.

"This year, we'll have four of our senior grades plus one or two of our juniors into the finals, which hasn't happened for a couple of years."

Lockhart's A-grade side is third on the ladder and has only lost twice all season, to the delight of co-captain and netball co-ordinator Bec Mathews.

"I've been out injured for three weeks and I'm so excited to be back out there playing," she said.

"Each week we've been faced with huge challenges in this Covid time, our volunteers have stepped up. They're taking on extras to what they normally would and it's been amazing.

"I'm very proud to be part of such a good group of people."

As is Dee Wolter, the club's head trainer, who's working in tandem with daughter Hannah to provide the strapping, taping and rub-downs required by four sets of footballers across the day.

"It gives the boys an outlet," she said.

"All these kids come from different schools so it's a social interaction. It's all about mind and body."

But while the mind is still willing, the body can only do so much.

"I won't be president next year," Mathews revealed.

"I'm 71 and it's time for someone a bit younger to step in.

"But this is such a central part of the community.

"It's hard to find words to express the importance of it but I'm very proud to be part of it."

And rightly so. This has been an example of community sport at its very best.

On a day when Lockhart weren't obliged to move their home game, when opponents Henty - weakened by the absence of several Victoria-based players - could have opted to fall back on the match ratio system and not turned up, and when the Walbundrie ground could have been kept off-limits in preparation for the Hume league finals, the collaboration and willingness to work together for a common cause has been truly uplifting.

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